Turkish foreign minister says Ankara summit will help shape NATO's future

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Tuesday that the NATO summit in Ankara will help shape the alliance's future and adapt its structures to an increasingly complex security environment.

Fidan, in a post on US social media platform X just as the two-day summit gets underway, Fidan said Türkiye is prepared to host NATO allies under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"The stage is set in Ankara. Under President Erdogan's leadership, Türkiye stands ready to welcome NATO members at a moment that will define the Alliance's future," Fidan said.

He stressed that decisions taken at the summit "will not merely address immediate challenges" but "will shape the Euro-Atlantic security environment for the years ahead."

Fidan said collective defense remains NATO's core mission, but argued that the strategic environment is changing as threats become "multi-domain, faster, and more complex."

"Traditional metrics no longer capture this reality. What matters now is output: deployable capability, industrial capacity, and operational readiness," he said.

The minister added that a stronger European contribution to NATO is essential but restrictions on defense-industrial cooperation undermine efficiency and slow response.

"These constraints have become strategic liabilities. European defense initiatives must remain fully inclusive of all NATO Allies," he said.

Fidan further noted that the alliance must also reconsider how it organizes cooperation. "The real issue is not only how we respond, but how we organize cooperation in a way that reflects today's realities. The Ankara Summit will guide the Alliance in aligning its structures with the world it faces," he said.

"Türkiye's objective is clear: a more coherent, more capable, and more resilient Alliance," Fidan added.